(30-09-2014 11:18 AM)kim Wrote: Actually, my first thought was of dumplings ... and then I thought ... of ... other things.

Kim, have you met DLJ? Here, let me introduce you...

Regarding the steam box, the one I saw was from Alienware which yes I know "overpriced yada yada yada yada" and I agree, but the steam box thing would be $750 NZ dollars -ish and would come down in price like consoles do I imagine seeing as it is competing with them.
I couldn't build a PC for $750 that would do what the steam box could do.
$400 for a semi-decent GPU alone, let alone a motherboard, a CPU, a PSU, a diskdrive, case, wifi card thingy, a decent heatsink and a decent cooling system. Oh and I almost forgot RAM.

The Steam box is tiny. I mean the thing is smaller then the ps4, like half the size. It has interchangeable parts, so it will be upgradable, and it will be far easier to play games on compared to a PC.

Plus, I have my laptop for youtube, TTA, TV shows etc..

I think for the purpose of playing PC games that a steam box would be the better (cheaper and easier) way to go. I'm not saying it would replace a PC, just that it could potentially (obviously it depends on how they execute it) replace gaming PC's and be a serious contender in the 'console' market.

I mean the reason I play/played consoles was because they're easy. You just slip the disk in and you're away (don't even need to slip the disk in now with the xboner in some cases) and I like playing certain types of games (everything except strategy games) with a controller. Plus that whole play with your friends aspect which is just far easier on console. So if I can get all that but with PC games and PC graphics and an upgradable 'console' then that's fucking fantastic.

(30-09-2014 04:52 AM)earmuffs Wrote: Why the fuck have I not heard of this until today?
This thing looks incredible. Best "console" ever. If what I have seen on it are anything to go by I would buy this over a xbox.

Dude, people having been discussing this for months.

The people closely associated with the namesake of female canines are suffering from a nondescript form of lunacy.
"Anti-environmentalism is like standing in front of a forest and going 'quick kill them they're coming right for us!'" - Jake Farr-Wharton, The Imaginary Friend Show.

I guess if you want to combine the disadvantages of both console and pc gaming, that's your prerogative...

What disadvantages?

The custom form factor is going to limit the choice of hardware, which is further restricted by support within the custom OS layer - without which it's literally just an inconveniently shaped PC. Console development can be made more efficient with fixed hardware, but that advantage is lost here. And since the hardware isn't going to be sold directly by Valve, it will have to make up its own cost. To come out with comparable performance to a decent PC it will have to cost as much as a decent PC, so there's no savings.

It's furthermore a move away from an open platform and a big leap towards the walled-garden approach of current consoles. It's the software that makes the console (particularly this time around, with x86 chips in both the PS4 and xbone) - and yet you'll find the very same people who decry MS or Sony for doing so jumping on board when Valve does it...

But no, if you want to overpay for a gimped PC with less freedom, knock yourself out. I just can't see anything appealing in the prospect.

My current (awesome) PC that I built has a full tower case (Cooler Master Stormstryker), if that tells you anything about how I feel about being confined by a small form factor. Limited air flow and hardware options would kill the point of having a powerhouse gaming pc. A limited OS makes it even worse.

Honestly though, I don't hate the steam box, I just don't get it. It seems like selling an inferior, but shined up, product to what already exists, but without giving you a price decrease.
Reminds me of Apple

(30-09-2014 06:27 PM)Adrianime Wrote: My current (awesome) PC that I built has a full tower case (Cooler Master Stormstryker), if that tells you anything about how I feel about being confined by a small form factor. Limited air flow and hardware options would kill the point of having a powerhouse gaming pc. A limited OS makes it even worse.

Honestly though, I don't hate the steam box, I just don't get it. It seems like selling an inferior, but shined up, product to what already exists, but without giving you a price decrease.
Reminds me of Apple

This is what happens when you have too many committee meetings. You can see the original idea (build a gaming computer to mass market and hijack console sales) and it just morphed into this frankenstein's monster of the worst of all worlds as it was tweaked and changed.

(31-07-2014 04:37 PM)Luminon Wrote: America is full of guns, but they're useless, because nobody has the courage to shoot an IRS agent in self-defense

All the Steam Box is, is a beefy HTPC (home theater PC) running Steam OS and meant to be used primarily with a controller.

HTPC's, or any other gaming PC built with an emphasis on a small and quiet form factor meant to play on a TV from a distance, is a fairly well established concept already.

You can basically build your own, and for much cheaper, provided you don't mind doing some research and getting your hands dirty.

Go looking for either a Mini-ATX or Micro-ATX case and a similarly sized motherboard. Here you need to decide between a the full range of powerful full-sized graphics cards, or confining yourself to the much much smaller selection of low-profile GPU's. This is the point where, if you're serious about doing console or better gaming in teh box, you go with full sized cards in a mini-tower.

Fuck, I'll build one for you on PC Part Picker to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

This is almost my PC, but crammed into a much smaller package. It's inside a gorgeous Corsair 250D mini-ITX case.

It has the same i5 4690K Devil's Canyon CPU, the same Corsair H100i CPU cooler, the almost identical (but smaller form factor) ASUS Z97I-Plus motherboard, and the same Corsair Vengeance RAM at 1600. This setup sports one of the new GTX970's, in this case the overclocked STRIX from ASUS. It also has a Blu-Ray drive in it's one and only 5.25 drive bay.

That being said, this also follows a theme (all Corsair and ASUS), and you are paying premium for better equipment. I could however make a similar build for less, assuming you didn't care about where you bought the parts, or who they came from, and where a bit more forgiving on looks.

This one has the same i5 CPU, but will rely on the stock Intel cooler. This has the ASUS H81M-d motherboard, which would have to be bought directly from ASUS so that you can request one with an update BIOS from the factory so that it will work with the i5 CPU (this mobo didn't support the Haswell refresh/Devil's Canyon chips when it was initially manufactured). This build also gets by on a cheaper, but not too bad looking BitFenix case. It also has the now discontinued EVGA Dual SuperClocked GTX770, because with the release of the new GTX970 the older stock is going on fire-sale. I also swapped out both of the previous hard-drives for a singular Hybrid drive, and I took out the Blu-Ray drive for a more basic (and cheaper) standard DVDRW drive. It also has a slightly cheaper set of G.Skil RAM, but at the same capacity and clock speed.

Both rigs have Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit included with them.

Example 1 came in at $1263.17

Example 2 came in at $834.15

And further still could be chopped off the price if you went with an i3 or a Pentium CPU, and downgraded the GPU from a GTX770 down to a GTX670, GTX660, or a GTX750Ti.

Fuck it, here is Example 3, which is the same as the cheaper Example 2, except this one has a i3 Intel CPU and a EVGA GTX750Ti, both of which are sub $150 components.